Category Archives: Businessmen

If you’re working in the marketplace, and you’re not the owner or the owner’s son, you’ll have managers supervising your work. Some of the managers will be good and a few might be bad. Yet even so, the Bible is clear on how we should treat all managers −good and bad:

Servants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, not with eye service as men-pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, with good will doing service as to the Lord, and not to men. (Ephesians 6:5-7)

Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable. (1 Peter 2:18 NASB)

Why should we honor our managers with loyalty and good service?

Knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free. (Ephesians 6:8)

If we are hoping to serve the Lord and have Him prosper us, we need to be loyal and honor all of our managers. If we struggle with any of our managers, we need to ask the Holy Spirit to help us. This is His job as our Helper.

But if for whatever reasons, we aren’t able to honor a manager or a company, then maybe we should resign and look for employment elsewhere.

My prayer today:

Lord, help us businessmen to love the managers who supervise us with Your love, the love You revealed to us on the cross.

Join us on Tuesdays to fast and pray for American men in the marketplace.

My rusty 1975 Chevrolet pickup soon needed brakes so I asked Wayne, a mechanic friend, to fix them. He did me a favor by fixing them on his lunch hour. Afterward, I drove the truck around the block, pressing on the brakes at each corner. Everything seemed okay.

I then moved out onto busy 1st Avenue South, heading toward my apartment. I hit the accelerator, the 350-engine roared to life as the truck quickly picked up speed. The upcoming light changed to red. I stepped on the brakes. The pedal went to the floor. No brakes! I pulled on the emergency brake. Nothing happened!

My hand hit the horn. I swerved out into the oncoming traffic lane to avoid slamming into the stopped cars ahead of me. The oncoming cars swerved out of my way while honking their horns and shaking their fists at me. I somehow missed everyone and turned into a parking lot with an uphill grade. The truck coasted to a stop. I shifted out of gear.

I sat there with my heart beating like a base drum inside a cave. The Holy Spirit then whispered to my heart: “Just like your truck was out of control, the American economy is also out of control.”

The Holy Spirit certainly had my attention at that moment, but was the American economy really out of control at that time in the spring of 1992?

The year 1992 was not a bad economic year. Dow Jones averages bottomed out at 3,137, inflation was a paltry three percent, unemployment stood at 6.8 percent, and gasoline cost $1.13 a gallon. The year ended up marking the beginning of an economic boom in America, which continued through the year 2000 with the Dow Jones rising to 11,750, inflation bottoming out at 2.1 percent, unemployment dropping to 4.5 percent, and gas inching up to $1.17 per gallon.

Even after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the American economy continued in a boom cycle. Houses, commodities, and stock markets skyrocketed.

But yet, the Holy Spirit spoke to me in the present tense back in 1992. What’s with that?

Our Lord is a now God. He sees the future, just like He sees the present. It is always now to Him. Thus, when He speaks prophetic words to us, we must consider His present tense words may be for the future, and not for the present. This is why we need discernment when we judge prophetic words.

Oh yes… What happened to my brakes, right?

Wayne forgot to put the cover back on the brake reservoir. The first few times I stepped on the brakes, the brake fluid sprayed onto my engine, emptying the reservoir. There was no fluid when I hit the brakes at the red light.

Wayne felt bad, but I told him an angel held a hand over his eyes so he would not notice the cover missing from the brake reservoir. He laughed until he realized I was serious about the angel’s handiwork.

Lord, I pray You give businessmen the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of You and Your ways. I also pray that the eyes of their understanding are enlightened so they may know what You’re really saying with all prophetic words.” (Based on Ephesians 1:17-18).

Join us on Tuesdays to fast and pray for American men in the marketplace.

“The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also” (2 Timothy 2:2).

Alfred, an owner of a company with one hundred employees, read the above verse and decided to act on it. He told his employees, “I attended a seminar that changed my life, and I’d like to try to share with you what God is teaching me. So once a week I’m going to shut down our plant for an hour, and I’m going to share what God’s Word says I should be doing for you. The meetings are voluntary, but everyone is welcome. From this point on, I want you to hold me responsible to be the kind of Christian employer that God expects me to be.”

The next Monday, when the plant stopped for the meeting, every one of Alfred’s employees was there. He began to share what he should be doing as a Christian businessman. Sometimes he would say, “I can’t implement this immediately or it would ruin our company, but eventually I am going to do this to the best of my ability.”

One of the programs Alfred wanted to implement was a benevolence program to help employees with special financial needs, such as medical bills, family crises, or special education expenses by providing company- sponsored grants.

To do this would first require reeducating the employees so that those who didn’t receive this benefit would not resent those who did. It also would require establishing an employee committee to oversee the fund and evaluate the candidates. But Alfred was determined to get it started.

About a year after the meetings began, Alfred asked me [Larry Burkette] to speak to his employees. At one point in my talk I asked, “How many in this room have personally accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior?” Out of more than 100 employees, about 25 hands went up.

A year later I went back. This time I asked, “During the last year, how many of you have personally accepted Jesus Christ as a result of the influence of your boss?” Hands went up throughout the room. In one year, more than 60 people had come to the Lord through Alfred’s influence, and he didn’t even know it. Evangelizing his employees hadn’t been his goal. His goal had simply been to become more Christlike in his business.

During an economic downturn, business got so bad he needed a large infusion of money in order to continue operating. The high interest rates at that time made borrowing out of the question. Word of the company’s financial problems spread to Alfred’s employees, several of whom got the idea of banding together to lend Alfred the money (almost $300,000) themselves. They raised the needed funds from among the other employees and provided Alfred with an interest-free loan.

Alfred was simply reaping what he had sown. When he began following God’s principles, he didn’t know that more than half of his employees would accept Christ as their Savior through his witness or that his employees would decide to lend him $300,000 interest free. He had simply sown biblical principles such as “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you,” and he reaped the benefits of those principles.

Employees, especially unsaved employees, have the tendency to believe what they see rather than what they hear. If what we do doesn’t match up with what we say, they will usually discount our words.

Lord, help Christian men who work in the marketplace to be doers of Your Word and not just hearers only, so that we do not deceive ourselves into thinking we are following in Your footsteps. (Based on James 1:22)

Join us on Tuesdays to fast and pray for American men in the marketplace.

We businessmen should look at ourselves in the mirror and make up our minds now. Will we will go 100% for Jesus and His ways? Or are we going to sell ourselves out to the world system and its ways? Halfway and lukewarm doesn’t work with Jesus. It’s either all-in or all-out!

Do you remember Demas?

Demas has deserted me because he loves the things of this life and has gone to Thessalonica… (2 Timothy 4:10)

Maybe Demas was a businessman. Maybe he enjoyed attending businessmen’s breakfasts and giving his testimony about how the Lord had prospered him. But there came a point in time, when he had to choose to be all-in or all-out. His decision is forever written down for all to see.

One day, the books for our lives will be opened for everyone to see the real us. Nothing will be hidden. We will then have to live for all of eternity with what’s written after our names, just like Demas.

My prayer today:

Lord, bring every businessman to a decision point right now about denying ourselves, picking up our cross daily and following You. Then, pour out Your grace on us so we can answer, “Yes,” and then follow You all the days of our lives.

Join us on Tuesdays to fast and pray for American men in the workplace.

My emphasis today is on praying specifically for men in the various business arenas. This does not mean I am discounting the importance of women in the workplace because I’m not. But I believe it’s time for American men to quit sitting on the sidelines, to stand up, walk onto the field and be true sons of the living God.

For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. (Romans 8:19)

Our Lord has placed His emphasis on men before.

The last time being the Businessmen’s Prayer Revival of 1857. In this move of the Holy Spirit, businessmen came together over a lunch hour to pray and encourage other men. The outcome of this revival was that 6% of the population of America gave their lives to Christ and believers rededicated their lives to Jesus Christ.

All of this was done outside the confines of traditional religion at the time and without clergy leading the groups. It was a laymen-led move of the Holy Spirit.

My prayer today:

Lord, I ask Your Spirit to open the hearts of American men in the workplace to yearn for fellowship with You and other men so the Kingdom of God’s fruits of righteousness, peace and joy come forth in our nation. (Based on 2 Thessalonians 2:10 and Romans 14:17)

Join us on Tuesdays to fast and pray for American men in the workplace.

“Right! Dylan said that it was no big deal, but he’s the master of understatement. So, fill in the gaps between hate crime, no big deal, and a broken nose.

J. C. laughed.

“Well, as you know Dylan spoke and gave his testimony at our businessmen’s noontime luncheon down in China town. There were about thirty men there. All enjoyed his words and I’d say it was a great success.

J. C. was the owner of Bates Properties, a commercial real estate firm in San Francisco. His success caused him to seek ways on how he could give back to the city he loved. He ended up being involved in Business Men’s Fellowship and became the chapter president.

“After the luncheon, I was driving him to Mission Terrace to spend some time together before I dropped him off at the airport. We were heading down Market Street, past the Castro District, when we saw a Pride parade. He asked to stop and watch. I pulled over and walked across the street with him.”

“So far,” I said, “everything seems okay.”

“Yeah, nothing happened until Dylan stepped off the curb and began preaching in a loud voice, ‘Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.'”

J. C. paused for a moment.

“Then everything happened at once. A couple of guys pushed and shoved him. Another hit him in the face, knocking his glasses off. He fell to the ground and quite a few kicked him. Two police officers came over and inquired what was happening. A man said that Dylan was preaching hate. One officer asked Dylan what he was doing and he replied he was preaching the Gospel of the kingdom of God. They cuffed him and threw into a police cruiser and took him off to jail.”

“That’s all my sweet hubby did.”

“Yep and he even forgave the crowd before he was ushered away.”

We talked a few minutes more. J. C. offered to pick me up at the airport and wanted me stay in his home with his wife and him.

I agreed to his offers, but I still had an unanswered question gnawing at me.

(Continued in Part 8…if you’re interested, the full series to date may be seen here.)

As a Christian car salesman at a General Motors/Toyota dealership in Iowa, many of my Christian friends stopped to see me when they were ready to buy a new car. Now, can you guess how many of them purchased new cars from me? None. Zero. Zilch.

The usual scenario would go something like this:

The husband and wife would stop by the dealership. I would show them the cars, they would choose one. I then would give them every possible discount and rebate the dealership would allow me to offer them on a new car. When I asked them if they were ready to sign the order, they invariably said, “We need to pray about this.”

The next day I would see them driving a competitor’s new car.

I would call them up and ask why they bought from my competitor instead of me. The usual answer: “Your competitor beat your deal by $50.”

This happened so often that I sought the Lord in prayer. “Lord, why are You telling my Christian friends to buy from a pagan salesman, rather than from me? Don’t I always pay tithes and offerings on my commissions? What does the pagan salesmen give You?”

In a clear voice, I felt the Lord said to my heart, “They never asked Me and I never told them to buy from your competitor.”

My prayer today:

Lord, I pray that American believers – as they have opportunity – do good to everyone, but especially to those who are of the family of God so that at just the right time they will reap a harvest of blessings. (Based on Galatians 6:9-10)